Airlines

Air Canada braces for a strike

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Your options if you have an Air Canada ticket

Air Canada’s negotiations with CUPE, the union representing 10,000 flight attendants on Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, aren’t going well.

And if no agreements can be made, a strike is expected to begin Saturday, August 16 at 01:00 ET.

In preparation, the carrier began a “phased wind-down” of its operations on Thursday and will be canceling hundreds of flights by this weekend.

For those with booked flights, the airline is offering options for refunds, flight changes and alternate travel arrangements.

If you’re booked on Air Canada with plans to travel between August 15 and August 18, you can change your flight for free if you purchased an Air Canada ticket or redeemed points for an Aeroplan flight reward no later than August 13, 2025.

You can rebook for another date between August 21 and September 12, 2025, or cancel your itinerary and put the unused portion towards a future travel credit.

If you keep your current booking and your flight is cancelled due to the labor dispute, Air Canada says it will attempt to rebook you on another flight, including those operated by other airlines, but is warning travelers that due to the summer travel peak, “rebooking you within an acceptable timeframe is low. If your travel is disrupted, you can always choose a refund.”

Alaska Airlines grounds fleet for 3 hours

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Sunday evening turned troublesome for Alaska Airlines and thousands of its passengers when the carrier experienced an IT outage and issued a system-wide ground stop for Alaska Airlines and Horizons Air flights to address the issue.

The ground stop lasted just a few hours, but it may take days to get all affected passengers to their destinations.

“As we reposition our aircraft and crews, there will most likely be residual impacts to our flights. It will take some time to get our overall operations back to normal,” the airline said in a statement.

As of 4 am EST, Alaska Airlines had not posted a travel advisory on its site for affected travelers, but if you’ve got a flight booked on Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air this week, be sure to check on the flight status before leaving home.

In June, Hawaiian Airlines, which became part of Alaska Airlines last September, reported a cybersecurity event that affected some of its IT systems, but no word yet if these incidents are related.

Donate to Texas flood relief & get bonus miles

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(Image courtesy American Airlines)

Individuals and organizations are doing what they can to help out with relief efforts for those affected by the catastrophic flooding in central Texas.

Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines is partnering with the American Red Cross, Airlink and Team Rubicon in relief efforts, assembling and sending care packages for responders and encouraging AAdvtange members to donate cash to the Red Cross by offering bonus AAdvantage miles.

Through July 18, AAdvantage members who donate a minimum of $25 to the Red Cross will receive 10 AAdvantage miles for every dollar donated.

Members can also donate AAdvantage miles through Miles for Social Good.

Below is a list of ways to donate airline frequent flier miles and/or cash to the Red Cross and to other organizations that offer relief efforts in various ways.

Donate frequent flier miles to the Red Cross and other groups

The Red Cross has a nice roundup page of partnerships and mileage donation pages for major airlines.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Members can donate miles to a wide variety of organizations, including an Alaska Airlines disaster relief pool by signing into their mileage accounts and choosing the ‘donate miles’ link.

Delta Air Lines Sky Miles members can donate Sky Miles through the Delta SkyWish program.

JetBlue TrueBlue members can donate their TrueBlue points to organizations such as World Central Kitchen and The American Red Cross.

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards members can donate their points to organizations such as Airlink, the American Red Cross and Team Rubicon through the airline’s Points for a Purpose program.

United Airlines Mileage Plus members can donate miles to organizations such as Airlink and the American Red Cross starting at this page.

Swank new ways to fly + cool new places to fly to

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This week there was news about new planes with upgraded interiors and a bevy of “let’s go!” new routes.

Earlier this week we shared photos and notes about the new seasonal Edelweiss Air flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to Zurich.

Alaska Airlines also announced that flights between Seattle and Rome will begin in May 2026. The carrier points out that the ‘Emerald City; will be connected to the ‘Eternal City’ for the first time.

With Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines recently launched flights to Tokyo Narita and in September will begin flying to Seoul, South Korea.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) celebrated new seasonal nonstop service to Athens Airport (ATH).

American Airlines woos with the ‘premium’ Boeing 787-9 aircraft

And this week, to much hoopla, American Airlines began flying one of its new 787-9P ‘premium’ aircraft, with an inaugural flight on June 5 from Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Sadly, the Stuck at The Airport team, sadly, wasn’t on that first flight. But we look forward to hopping on board soon to experience all the new creature comforts.

Here’s a short video of the new interior that the airline shared a few weeks back.

And here’s an important public service announcement

(Image courtesy Clark County Dept of Aviation)

Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas and the #WhatsMyName Foundation introduced a safety campaign that is important to remember every time and anywhere you hail a rideshare.

The foundation was created to honor Sami Josephson, a young woman kidnapped and murdered by a fake rideshare driver in 2019. The campaign uses the letters of Sami’s name to spell out the tips that could save your life.

Here are the tips to remember:

S: Stop before you get in a vehicle and go over the safety rules in the app

A: Ask your driver “What’s my name?” to confirm that they are the driver assigned to you. (Don’t say, “Are you ….”)

M: Match the make, model and license plate of the car with the one displayed in your rideshare app.

I – Inform a friend or family member of your ride details. Rideshare apps offer a real-time tracking app. Use it.

Edelweiss Air lands in Seattle

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Lufthansa Group’s leisure airline, Edelweiss (operated by SWISS), touched down at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) on Monday and was welcomed with a traditional water cannon salute.

Edelweiss will now offer twice weekly summer seasonal service between SEA and Switzerland’s Zurich Airport (ZRH) on an Airbus A340-300 with 314 seats across three classes.

Edelweiss Business Class has 27 fully lie-flat seats. Economy Max includes 76 seats and there are 211 seats in Economy Class.

With this new flight, travelers can now travel from Seattle to Munich, Frankfurt and Zurich on Lufthansa Group flights.

SEA recently welcomed back SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) for flights between Seattle and Copenhagen after a ‘pause’ of 16 years and celebrated Alaska Airlines’ new flights on Hawaiian Airlines to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. So it’s been pretty busy around here.

But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a proper celebration for Edelweiss.

In addition to short celebratory speeches and a ribbon cutting, travelers waiting for the flight to depart were treated to a tasty snack of chocolate-covered pretzel sticks.

(Bernd Bauer, CEO of Edelweiss Air, with Lufthansa Group and SEA executives).